


To Sleep, Perchance to Dream

by kayura_sanada



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Canon Compliant, Character Study, Dreams, M/M, Spoilers - Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-12
Updated: 2018-07-12
Packaged: 2019-06-09 08:45:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15263754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kayura_sanada/pseuds/kayura_sanada
Summary: Ventus sleeps, and sometimes, he dreams.





	To Sleep, Perchance to Dream

Sometimes, he dreamed.

One time, he dreamed of darkness encroaching on a home, swallowing up a loved one until – desperately he called for his keyblade. One came, but it wasn’t his. It wasn’t strong enough. _He_ wasn’t. When he finally met his loved one again, he wasn’t the same anymore.

He dreamed of Terra, changed so wholly he seemed as dark as night. He protected Xehanort’s heart, chains his newest armor, hands of black his newest weapon. He tried to cry out for Terra as he disappeared into light, but his voice made no sound, and Terra was lost.

He dreamed of sleeping; he dreamed he saw his reflection in another boy’s eyes. In that boy was the anger he wished he could feel behind his sorrow. That boy had lost his loved ones, too, one to darkness and the other to an unknown, unfollowable road – loss, and loss, until it looked simply like life. He dreamed of another’s loss – his own, but not his, a heart so like his it felt entwined in his own. He dreamed of forgetting his friends, and of his friends forgetting him, until there was no one but the boy he loved and the girl he thought he loved. The boy he loved – a copy of him, torn and twisted and aching, like the one he longed to see – and the girl he thought he loved – blonde, or red-headed, whichever, both, none; a girl he cared for intensely, and so it must be love.

He dreamed of waking up splintered, as if Vanitas had severed him and glued his broken pieces back together. Time was an inconstant then – he’d grown, he’d changed. He was still the same. Only now his dreams were crowded – more memories. More tears. More and more, and yet less. He dreamed he forgot. He dreamed the forgetting caused him tears.

He dreamed of Terra’s body, lifeless yet moving, a husk where Terra’s smile used to sit. He dreamed of fighting those forms, fighting and fighting, hurting and hurting. He dreamed of standing by his precious person – no, not his, but _his_ – and turning Terra’s body into nothing, not even dust. He dreamed of it so deeply it felt like a memory, so deeply he couldn’t find the strength to cry. It felt like the tears came from too far a place. The world itself held his tears, and he was too far in the dream to reach them.

He dreamed so many nightmares, it was like a hazy daydream when he opened his eyes and saw a beach at sunset before him.

He’d dreamed of dreaming again. Nothing had made sense; he’d seen Xehanort in every corner of every world, until his face had blurred with Terra’s. He’d seen himself, and Terra, and Aqua – and he’d seen the loved ones of the one who looked like him, and was told to save them all. Those his reflection lost, and those he lost.

In that haze of dreams within dreams, he finally started to understand. He wasn’t seeing himself. This wasn’t him. He was looking out through the eyes of another, watching the worlds shimmer before him as his world remained lost. His rest was no true rest at all. Time had run forward without him.

And Terra? Aqua?

The sunset world he opened his eyes to felt wrong. It took him a moment to realize he hadn’t awakened at all, but instead entered a new dream.

This one was calmer. It reminded him of the sleep he’d begun back when he’d first closed his eyes – a long, endless dream of summer skies and warm sands, and a friend he could not imagine living without.

For long moments, the sunset stretched out around him, and he was alone. He could feel the presence of others – so close, and yet so distant. Not a part of him, but a part of that which connected him to this place.

There was a peace here. It felt familiar. He’d been wearing it like a blanket for so long he’d forgotten that it wasn’t a part of his sleep. It reminded him of another time when he’d felt himself sinking through the cracks of the World. Someone had come to him, shored him up like the rolling waves before him, and let him rest. Thanks to that person, he’d met Terra and Aqua. He’d found a home. A family.

That person had watched this place sink into darkness. He remembered seeing it, very early on in his dreams. Darkness, and the hearts of those from this world and another, countless others, each of them fallen into nothingness, desiring their hearts back. Each had attacked the young man he’d slept within, until that new keyblade had reached the young man’s hands.

He looked up. Up there, on that tiny island, seemingly kept in place by the wooden bridge there, was where that young man’s precious person had slipped away into darkness. He hung his head. His own precious person – how long had it been since he’d seen Terra’s face?

The thought reminded him of those strange faces, those people who had reminded him of Terra but hadn’t been him. How much of what he’d dreamed had been real? How much had been fake?

Where was Terra now? And Aqua?

Someone entered the soul space. He looked over to see a young man – _the young man’s precious person_ – speaking with his reflection. He took a deep breath. He could feel something pushing him forward. It felt like a helping hand. It had untangled him from the dreams, until he could be himself again.

The young man came to him. “Roxas?” he asked. Then, “no…”

Roxas. The name of his reflection?

He looked the boy in the face. Did he know who he was to the soul that housed him? Did he know, perhaps better than the soul itself, how important he was?

His heart hurt. He knew who his precious person was. He knew what he wanted to say. What he wanted to do. This person, able to roam so freely within his loved one’s soul – did he understand the gift he possessed?

He stared into those teal eyes as a hand like fate urged him forward. “What is the one thing you care about more than anything else?”

The boy seemed to ponder it for a second, but his answer, when it came, came with a certain smile. “My close friends.”

Ven’s heart reverberated like a strummed string. This one understood. His, too. His, too. His loved ones – Aqua, a friend and a mother and a protector, always watching out for her friends like an overprotective hen. And Terra, who loved unreservedly, who would do literally anything for anyone, but for his friends especially. Aqua, who had protected him when he was hurt, and Terra, who had tried to face Ven’s enemies for him, so he wouldn’t be hurt to begin with.

He wanted to see them again. He wanted to see them.

This place wasn’t him. It wasn’t a dream, and it wasn’t him.

It was time to wake up.


End file.
